Many retail store establishments utilize conventional slat walls to carry products being displayed for sale. These slat walls consist of horizontally oriented spaced boards or slats formed by providing horizontal slots in a pressboard, plywood or like material. A vertical slot is usually milled at the inner end of the space between the slats to form, with the space, a generally T-shaped opening between the slats. Conventional display hooks or shelves can then be mounted between the slats so that the wall can carry a multitude of products for retail display.
In addition to the initial expense of these slat walls, one problem with them relates to their maintenance. They are not only in need of frequent painting, but also, and more importantly, they are susceptible to chipping or cracking due to the frequent placement and removal or the display hooks and shelving. Such presents an unsightly problem which mere painting cannot resolve and eventually results in the need to replace the entire slat wall.
Moreover, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to provide promotional information or a decorative graphic image on conventional slat walls. Thus, while the retail establishment may want to promote a sale on the slat wall background of a product being displayed, or may want to adorn the establishment with some type of seasonal or other graphic image, such cannot be done with conventional slat walls unless, of course, the establishment would have a separate pre-painted wall for each promotion or desired graphic image. However, such would be highly impractical inasmuch as the establishment would have to incur the initial expense of purchasing multiple slat walls and then the recurring expense of removing the existing slat wall and installing a new slat wall each time a change would be desired.